1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for mounting soldering balls onto corresponding electrodes provided on an upper surface of a workpiece, such as a substrate or a comparable electronic component.
2. Prior Art
In the field of fine electronic component mounting methods and apparatuses, recently developed is a technology of utilizing soldering balls for forming terminals or connecting the same on a substrate or a comparable electronic component. One typical technology for shifting and mounting such soldering balls onto electrodes includes steps of providing an absorber head having a plurality of absorbing holes as much as the electrodes of a workpiece to be processed, absorbing soldering balls from a ball reservoir at the absorbing holes of the absorber head, and transporting and mounting the absorbed soldering balls onto the workpiece by shifting the absorber head.
However, the above method is disadvantageous in that some of the soldering balls may be accidentally trapped so deeply in the absorbing holes that these soldering balls are no longer disengaged from the absorbing heads because each soldering ball is too soft to prevent deformation when it is absorbed into the absorbing hole under a significant suction pressure.